Flora and the Flamingo

This week, preschool class is back with more stories about moving up, down, and all around!

We started with “My Hands.”

Sometimes my hands are at my side
Then behind my back they hide
Sometimes I wiggle my fingers just so
Shake them fast
Shake them slow
Sometimes my hands go
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP!
Then I rest them in my lap

Then we began our first story, Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle. This is a gorgeous wordless picture books with interactive flaps and fold-outs. Flora tries to mimic the flamingo’s graceful poses and movement, but she stumbles along the way. Can the flamingo lend her a hand (or rather, a wing)?

After the book was done, I had the kids try to mimic some of the poses in the book (we skipped the pose that ended with Flora tumbling to the ground). They did really well standing on one foot and balancing, and their ballet moves weren’t bad either!

Our craft this week was a painted flamingo:

We talked a little bit about real flamingos and what they look like before I showed them what we would be making. Because we were a bit pressed for time, I printed, cut, and glued the flamingo printable from LearnCreateLove myself ahead of time and then made copies for the kids to use. I gave them trays of pink, red, and orange paint, and then I gave them feathers to paint with, a fantastic idea from Tippytoe Crafts. It was a little bit messy and a lot of fun.

After we washed our hands and got all cleaned up, we took played with play dough for about ten minutes before moving on to our next activity, an Olaf beanbag toss:

Once everyone had a few turns, we started our last story, Sue Redding’s Up Above & Down Below about the world above the ground and the world below it. Each page is split so the reader sees both worlds at once. When we read this story, we stretched our arms up high whenever I read the word up and bent down with our hands on the floor whenever I read the word down.

We finished up with “Touch Your Chin.”

Touch your nose
Touch your chin
That’s the way
This game begins
Touch your eyes
Touch your knees
Now pretend
You’re going to sneeze
ACHOO!
Touch your elbows
Where they bend
Jump right up and say
THE END!

Join us next week for more stories about moving up, down, and all around!